Cody Dawson will be the first vo-ag teacher at Henryetta schools in over 50 years.
Dawson was hired Monday night to start up the new program when classes resume for the 2017-18 school year. The school had a short-lived vo-ag program in the early 1950s.
During the monthly board meeting, Lindell Threatt will be taking the helm for the high school girls basketball program as well as handle the special education program.
Kira Hardgrave was hired for the high school science slot.
Board members filled those three slots but will be dealing with several retirements and resignations.
Retirement letters from Pamela Boatright, Charla Wilkes and Tonya Wilkinson were accepted as well as resignations of Mollie Frye, Kelsie Davis and Jennifer Praschak.
School computer tech director Randy Witham submitted his resignation effecting the end of June. He will be starting his own company, Local Tech. That company was approved by the board to handle the school computer needs.
Witham told the board he had received three bids to fill up the STEM building next fall. He recommended going with Light Speed since that company offered extra parts, as well as higher end computers and life time tech support. Board members made the choice to go with Light Speed.
A school calendar for the 2017-2018 school year that had graduation early in May, 2018 was not accepted by the board.
“I’m getting a ton of phone calls about graduation this year on Tuesday,” said board president James Williams. “Usually we graduate on the third Friday of the month and have been doing that for years.” He explained many families plan to come to graduation over the weekend.
“I would rather delay another week and start school August 21 and end on May 18.
School superintendent Dwayne Noble said he would rework the calendar and bring it back to the board for the May meeting.